US Naval Advance Bases

US Naval Advance Bases were built globally by the United States Navy during World War II to support and project U.S. naval operations world-wide. A few were built on allied soil, but most were captured enemy facilities or completely new. Advance bases provided the fleet with support to keep ships tactically available with repair and supply depots of facilities, rather than return them to CONUS.[1] Before Japan declared war on the United States the US Navy had a single fleet sized advanced base in the Territory of Hawaii. It was Naval Station Pearl Harbor. During the war the US Navy Seabees built over 400 advance bases categorized by size. Naval bases were either Lions or Cubs while airfields were either Oaks or Acorns. Lions and Oaks were major facilities while Cubs and Acorns were minor. PT Boats typically would get a Cub and airfields with single runways were Acorns. The larger bases could do refueling and overhaul; loading of troopship and cargo ships; and preparing amphibious assault ships. Some became major repair depots. The Seabees developed auxiliary floating drydocks were able to repair battle damage and do regular maintenance in the field saving ships trans-pacific trips for repair. A few bases also were developed to be R and R for all U.S. personnel. Most Advance Bases were built by the US Navy's Seabees in Naval Construction Battalions (CBs). At the start of the war some civilian contractor were employed in construction. The Seabees in World War II built most of the airfields used by the United States Army Air Forces and United States Marine Corps, as they had the ships and cranes needed to transport the vast amount of equipment needed at the advance bases. The US Army and United States Coast Guard also operated out of many of these facilities. Seabees could build new or repair damaged runways, and with advancements in heavy bomber technology lengthen runways as needed. A few Naval Advance Bases were built for the Korean War and Vietnam War.[2][3][4]

Naval Advance Base Espiritu Santo docks, now part of the City of Luganville

Advance Bases

Built at the bases were personnel housing, piers, roads, shops, power plants, water plants. Large storage depots with fuel, ammunition, food, and other consumable supplies. Fuel for ships, airplanes and vehicles was in much demand, 25,000,000 barrels of fuel was shipped to Pacific bases in just June 1945. During World War 2, in Guam alone one million gallons of aviation gasoline were needed each day. Over 325,000 Seabees troops built bases.[5][6] On the home front many new ships and boats were built the West coast and East coast, Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. Under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program and War Shipping Administration contracts went out to shipyards and Ironwork works companies across the country. Ports were needed for many new cargo ships to dock, like the: 2,710 Liberty ships and 531 Victory ships built, plus the many new tankers and new warships. In the South Pacific, Seabees operated coral pit mines, as crushed coral was used for runways, roads, sidewalks, and more. Many runways were built using steel Marston Mats. At some bases Seabees built sawmills, to produce local timber. Floating pile drivers were used to built piers, docks, and wharves. If pile driving was not suitable, a floating wharf was built. To protect ships and the ports, they needed to built and repaired quickly and runways. Sometimes Seabees set up electric generator lighting and worked around the clock to complete runways. For housing, offices, mess halls, and depots a vast amount of quonset huts of different sizes were built. The Pacific island hopping campaigns, gave new work to be done each day.[7][8][9][10]

At the end of World War 2, almost all of the bases were closed, many were abandoned. A vast amount of vehicles, supplies and equipment at the bases was deemed not needed and too costly to ship to the U.S. Bring the gear home also would have hurt home front industries, as there was already a vast amount of military surplus. Much the equipment was destroyed. Some was given to the local governments has a thank you for the land use. Some of the abandoned bases were used for local military, some turned into towns and ports, like Naval Advance Base Espiritu Santo. Some of the abandoned airfields turned into local and international airports, a post-war Seabees legacy.

Active Bases

Closed bases

Major Advance Bases
Artisan with USS Antelope (IX-109) and LST-120 in the dock at Espiritu Santo in January 1945

[14]

Rear Pacific Area

Philippines
See also: Philippines campaign (1941–42), Philippines campaign (1944–45), and Battle of the Philippine Sea

[17]

Solomon Islands
See also: Solomon Islands campaign, Battle of the Eastern Solomons, and Battle of the Coral Sea

|[18][19]

Central Pacific
See also: Battle of Saipan, Mariana and Palau Islands campaign, Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign, and Pacific Islands home front during World War II

[20]

Australia, Papua New Guinea & Dutch New Guinea
See also: New Guinea campaign and Operation Cartwheel

[21][22][23]

Borneo
See also: Battle of Borneo (1941-42) and Borneo campaign (1945)
  • Tarakan - Advanced Base, PT boat base
  • Tawi-Tawi - Advanced Base, PT boat base
  • Brunel Bay - Advanced Base, PT boat base
  • Balikpapan - Advanced Base, PT boat base

Japan and Marianas
See also: Battle of Okinawa, Battle of Iwo Jima, and Occupation of Japan

[25][26][27][28]

China

Mediterranean
See also: North African campaign, Italian campaign (World War II), Allied invasion of Sicily, and Southern France Campaign (1944)

[30]

Atlantic
See also: Normandy landings, Operation Overlord, and Battle of the Scheldt

[31]

Caribbean and South America
See also: Panama during World War II, Latin America during World War II, and Battle of the Caribbean

Aleutian Islands
See also: Aleutian Islands campaign; Dutch Harbor Naval Operating Base and Fort Mears, U.S. Army; and Aleutian World War II National Historic Area

[35]

Korea

For Korean War built:

Antarctica

Vietnam

For Vietnam War:

World War I

During World War I the Navy had overseas bases, they were not called Advance Bases.

  • Aerial view of Seeadler Harbor in 1945
  • Aviation Supply Annex under construction
  • Pallikulo Bay Pontoon Wharf with USS Tangier unloading supplies
  • Naval Air Transport Service Facilities
  • Aviation Overhaul Area
  • F6F-3 Hellcats of VF-40 in 1944
  • base boat repair dock
  • AFDB-1 with USS West Virginia in for repairs off Aessi Island on 13 November 1944
  • Sea bees depot with earthmovers, used to built runways, ramps, roads and foundations.
  • SBD Dauntless being moved small bulldozer and two plywood Landing Craft (LCVPs)
  • PBY Catalinas at the Luganville Seaplane Base February 1942
  • U.S. ships and aircraft in Little Placentia Sound, Argentia in 1942
  • Naval Operating Base Dutch Harbor hut design
  • Seabee Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery

See also

References
  1. Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-2020
  2. "HyperWar: Building the Navy's Bases in World War II [Chapter 5]". www.ibiblio.org.
  3. US Navy Logistics of Advance Bases
  4. US Navy, Building the Navy's Bases in World War II, Volume I (Part I)
  5. seabeesmuseum.com, History
  6. US Navy Building the Infrastructure for War, Establishment of Navy Construction Battalions
  7. US Navy, Building the Navy's Bases in World War II, Volume II (Part III, Chapter 26), Chapter XXVI, Bases in the Southwest Pacific
  8. "HyperWar: Building the Navy's Bases in World War II [Chapter 6]". www.ibiblio.org.
  9. "HyperWar: Building the Navy's Bases in World War II [Chapter 7]". www.ibiblio.org.
  10. "HyperWar: Building the Navy's Bases in World War II [Chapter 10]". www.ibiblio.org.
  11. Seabees Memorial George Washington Memorial Parkway
  12. "Seabees Memorial, (sculpture) | Collections Search Center, Smithsonian Institution". collections.si.edu. Retrieved 2019-04-09.
  13. defense.gov, US Post War Naval Advance Base
  14. "Guide to Archival Holdings (RG 310-Donated Materials)". National Archives. August 15, 2016.
  15. Seabees report on Naval Advance Base Espiritu Santo
  16. US Navy, Naval Construction Battalion Detachment 1007 - Naval History
  17. "HyperWar: Building the Navy's Bases in World War II [Chapter 29]". www.ibiblio.org.
  18. "HyperWar: Building the Navy's Bases in World War II [Chapter 25]". www.ibiblio.org.
  19. "Solomon Islands Airfields".
  20. "HyperWar: Building the Navy's Bases in World War II [Chapter 27]". www.ibiblio.org.
  21. US Navy Securing New Guinea
  22. "HyperWar: Building the Navy's Bases in World War II [Chapter 24]". www.ibiblio.org.
  23. "HyperWar: Building the Navy's Bases in World War II [Chapter 26]". www.ibiblio.org.
  24. Navy, corporateName=Royal Australian. "USN Submarines Based in Brisbane during World War II". www.navy.gov.au.
  25. "HyperWar: Building the Navy's Bases in World War II [Chapter 28]". www.ibiblio.org.
  26. "HyperWar: Building the Navy's Bases in World War II [Chapter 30]". www.ibiblio.org.
  27. "HyperWar: Building the Navy's Bases in World War II [Chapter 31]". www.ibiblio.org.
  28. seabeemagazine United States naval forces at Hiroshima, Kabayana, Yokosuka, Omura
  29. US Navy, Seabees repot, 125th
  30. "HyperWar: Building the Navy's Bases in World War II [Chapter 20]". www.ibiblio.org.
  31. "HyperWar: Building the Navy's Bases in World War II [Chapter 21]". www.ibiblio.org.
  32. "Big U.S. naval base in Ulster built by American and British workers. Londonderry is now America's premier naval base in Europe".
  33. US Navy Seabees report 81th
  34. "HyperWar: Building the Navy's Bases in World War II [Chapter 18]". www.ibiblio.org.
  35. "HyperWar: Building the Navy's Bases in World War II [Chapter 23]". www.ibiblio.org.
  36. US Navy Korean War
  37. Seabees report Inchon
  38. "Wonsan Key Seaport Before War Started; Badly Crippled by U.N. Air and Sea Attacks". The New York Times. June 30, 1951. Retrieved 2009-02-17.
  39. Halliday, Jon; Cumings, Bruce (1988). Korea, the Unknown War. New York: Pantheon Books. p. 157.
  40. US Navy Korean War
  41. Christine Elliott (May 2005). "Antarctica, Scott Base and its environs". New Zealand Geographer. 61 (1): 68–76. doi:10.1111/j.1745-7939.2005.00005.x.
  42. "Maritime Professional - McMurdo Sound". March 14, 2014. Retrieved November 1, 2014.
  43. Coram, Robert (November 2010). Brute: The Life of Victor Krulak, U.S. Marine (1st ed.). Little, Brown & Co, Hachette Book Group. p. 295. ISBN 978-0-316-75846-8.
  44. Shulimson, Jack (1978). U.S. Marines in Vietnam: The Landing and the Buildup. History and Museums Division, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps. pp. 29–35. ISBN 978-1494287559.
  45. Navy-seabees, 6
  46. US Navy WW1
  47. Navt History WW1
  48. Leith, Scotland, Hospital
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